Innovative ideas that come to reality require legal protection. Establishing a copyright, patenting, licensing, branding, and other issues related to intellectual property must be addressed , and many times require professional assistance from an attorney or other professionals. This guide includes links to specific resources and FAQs. A great introduction to the topic!

Dominic Orr is the President and CEO of Aruba Networks, a supplier of secure mobility and wireless Local Area Network (LAN) solutions for enterprises. Orr unveils Aruba's approach to building solutions for mobile workforces at Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies like Microsoft, NTT Data, and SAP. He articulates Aruba's strategies for competing with mammoths like Cisco, and emphasizes that speed of execution in this highly competitive market is key to his company's success.

Although brands are usually evaluated based on competitive those of competitors, this article points out that customers apply much broader criteria. They use how they feel about your company (even the logo), how they interact with your employees, especially those in customer service reps; advertising, and your name, among many others. Key point: Remember that your customers own your brand, not you. Treat them accordingly.

Ashwin Navin is the President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent, Inc. He joined Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, in 2004, moving from Yahoo! where he was an influential member of the company's Corporate Development
group. He possesses extensive experience in structuring and negotiating acquisitions, partnerships and alliances in the tech industry. While at Yahoo!, Ashwin was responsible for M&A, divestitures and company strategy in the U.S. and
key global markets such as India and Korea. Before Yahoo!, Ashwin worked with Wall Street powerhouses Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch as an investment banker and research analyst. Ashwin earned a dual B.A. from Claremont McKenna
in Government and Economics.

Ping Li from Accel and Ashwin Navin, the President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent, Inc. talk about BitTorrent's journey from an open-source project to being a global standard for delivering high-quality files over the Internet. He discusses how their team worked on changing the landscape of digital media distribution. His company evolved to provide a revenue proposition to some of the largest media companies in the world. Navin mentions the company's plan of scaling internationally in countries like Japan as being key to its success in the future.

Mitch Kapor has been at the forefront of the information technology revolution for a generation as an entrepreneur, investor, social activist, and philanthropist. Most recently, Mr. Kapor founded Foxmarks, an upcoming
search engine based on bookmarks and related metadata. He received a B.A. from Yale College in 1971 and studied psychology, linguistics, and computer science as part of a major in Cybernetics. He attended the Sloan School of Management at
MIT before leaving for a Silicon Valley startup. Mr. Kapor founded Lotus Development Corp. in 1982 and with Jonathan Sachs created Lotus 1-2-3, which made the PC ubiquitous in business in the 1980's. In 1990, he co-founded the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. He founded the Mitchell Kapor Foundation in 1997 and the Open Source Applications Foundation in 2001. He became the founding Chair of the Mozilla Foundation in 2003 and is a trustee of the Level Playing Field
Institute. From 1994-1996, he served as Adjunct Professor at the MIT Media Lab. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Kapor was a partner at Accel. In 2006, he became an Adjunct Professor at the School of Information at Berkeley. Mr. Kapor has
contributed pieces on information infrastructure policy, intellectual property, and antitrust in the digital era topublications such as Scientific American, The New York Times, and Forbes.

Mike Maples, Jr. is the managing partner of Maples Investments, and is an entrepreneur in his own right. Before becoming a full-time investor, he worked in a variety of executive and management roles in high-growth
companies. His background spans a variety of markets including consumer technology, small business, and the enterprise, and he has served in various executive roles in product development, marketing, and corporate strategy. Mike began his
technology career in high school, when he started a software company that developed games and educational products for the original IBM PC. He has been passionate about the technology industry ever since. Most recently, Mike co-founded
Motive, Inc., the world's leading broadband software company in 1997 and played key roles in its growth from raw start-up through sales of $100 million. Motive was one of the only successful technology IPOs in 2004, and the most successful
infrastructure software IPO for the prior three years. At Motive, Mike was General Manager of Motive's Corporate Business Unit, as well as Chief Marketing and Strategy officer. Prior to Motive, Mike was responsible for worldwide product
marketing at Tivoli Systems, where he managed the company's product portfolio from its early-stage development through its 1995 IPO and growth to a $750M line of business within the IBM Software Group. Mike began his professional career at
Silicon Graphics, where he served in business development and product marketing roles. In his spare time Mike is an amateur artist, movie-maker, and calligrapher. He holds an Engineering degree from Stanford University, an MBA from Harvard
Business School, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a guest-lecturer on entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of Texas.

Jesse Fink is a founding partner of MissionPoint Capital and President and CEO of Marshall Street Management. In 2004, MSM established MSM Capital Partners to manage its investment activities in the clean technology and
environmental finance sectors. Jesse was the COO of Walker Digital Inc. and Priceline.com and previously worked at Georgia-Pacific, Citicorp, and CUC International. Jesse received a B.S. in Resource Management from the State University of
New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an MBA from Syracuse University's School of Management. In February of 2007, Jesse received the Cleantech Venture Network's "Leader of the Year" award.

Christine has been President of Humane Society Silicon Valley for the past 13 years. During her tenure, Christine has led a progressive spay/neuter program that has dramatically reduced the number of incoming animals to
the shelter from 45,000 in 1993 to approximately 9,000 in 2006. Under her leadership, the shelter instituted a spay/neuter at adoption policy, pediatric spay/neuter, an affordable spay/neuter vaccination clinic, and encouraged local
municipalities to offer discounted spay/neuter voucher programs. Christine has also instituted policies that have substantially increased the number of animals adopted. Today, 99 percent of the animals available for adoption find new
homes; ten years ago, less than 15 percent found new homes. Under Christine's management, the Humane Society's volunteer base increased from 50 to more than 700, and the shelter's donor base increased from 300 to 30,000 donors. In addition
to her passion for animals, Christine has a strong business background, having spent four years as an auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co. and 15 years with Hewlett Packard Corporation. At HP, Christine held several managerial positions
both domestically and in Europe. Christine is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University. She serves as a board member of the State Humane Association of California and is a volunteer consultant to
various nonprofit boards. In 1989, Business Month magazine named Christine to its list of "100 Women to Watch in Corporate America." Christine owns four dogs, all of which were adopted from Humane Society Silicon
Valley.

A network of U.S. cities facilitating a weekly entrepreneur education program. Go to 1 Million Cups >

Whether you are starting or growing a company, FastTrac will help you live your dream at each stage.Go to FastTrac >

Email Newsletters

Want to be up-to-date with the latest news and updates from Entrepreneurship.org? To subscribe, just give us your email address below; you'll choose which e-newsletters you'd like to receive on the next screen.

Email Newsletter Sign-up Form

Enter your Email Address:Submit

Socialize With Us

Choose your favorite social media channels to keep up with the latest activity on Entrepreneurship.org.